La Boulangerie Saint Charles

After sleeping for about 14 hours our first night in Paris (which helped us adjust REALLY fast to the time change), we were pretty hungry. The truth is that the light-​blocking curtains were so effective that we slept till about 11 a.m., when housekeeping tried to come in… :P It was too late to go get breakfast so we bathed, got dressed, and headed out to see what we could run into in the neighborhood.
Not knowing at all where we were headed, by some lucky accident, we ended up on rue Saint-​Charles, in which neighborhood there were a ton of choices. We walked by various cafés and brasseries, as well as some bakeries. We also found that we had some markets/​grocery stores and pharmacies close by. Where to eat? We were tempted by almost every place we passed but nothing entirely clicked for me. After walking a few more blocks, our rumbling bellies demanded that we get food and by some miracle, that was when we stopped in front of La Boulangerie Saint Charles. It was a bakery like many that I saw and visited when I visited Paris before and it looked perfect. The sandwiches in the case looked appetizing and let’s not even get into the pastries!
AT and I walked in and he noticed immediately that since it was a weekday, we could probably partake in the weekday mid-​day lunch formula. What is the lunch formula, you ask? To bring you up to speed, if you are unsure, it is a lunch special offered at many restaurants on weekdays because workers are given coupon books that their employers give them as a subsidy for their mid-​day meals. If you go to a restaurant with these specials, you may see people rip out a voucher from their little booklet to pay. Now you know why. ;) Anyway, even if you don’t have one of these little pieces of paper to cut the cost of your meal, you should probably pick one of the combos because it is a fantastic deal! In the boulangeries/​pâtisseries, you usually can select from delicious sandwiches on baguette, drinks (like Schweppes Agrum, Gini, and Orangina), and a pastry! Yes, a pastry, such as an apple or apricot tart, éclairs of different types (like pistachio, coffee, chocolate, or vanilla), flan (French egg custard pie, unlike the crème caramel variety of flan), pain aux raisins, or a pâte à choux (choux pastry). When you consider the artistry of the bread– and pastry-​making, you feel like you are stealing the food.
The food was so wonderful that we made regular lunch stops during our long weekend in Paris. Very friendly service and the open street market on Saturday mornings is something to behold. Stop here if you get the chance.